While Oldfield of course kept silent about the exact nature of his creation in the run up to May 6, he did recently share details about the first time that he met Camilla during an event at Clarence House with The Guardian. “It was the time when she’d fallen down in Scotland and sprained her ankle,” he recalled. “So because she couldn’t walk around, she sat in a chair, and they put half a dozen chairs around her, and her stewards brought five or six people at a time to sit and talk to her. But they brought me on my own. And she said: ‘Now, Bruce, I think it’s time that we actually made a few dresses, don’t you?’” And make a few dresses they did.
Oldfield graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1973, and, after working with Henri Bendel in New York, he launched his eponymous label in 1975. His brand has always had a strong connection with high-profile clients: His first celebrity commission came courtesy of Bianca Jagger, who tasked him with altering a suit that once belonged to Rita Hayworth.
It’s Diana, Princess of Wales, though, that made Bruce Oldfield a favorite of the ’80s, with the designer working closely with British Vogue’s Anna Harvey to put together a wardrobe befitting a modern royal for the young princess.
